O'Grady's PowerPage

Category: Hardware

  • BlackMagic eGPU Pro availability pushed back to December on Apple’s online storefront

    A rather cool item that debuted alongside the new Mac mini and MacBook Air back in October has been delayed a bit.

    Apple, which recently added the Blackmagic eGPU Pro as an online store item, stated the unit would be released in late November. Unfortunately, the current listing now says that the device won’t be coming until December.

    Priced at $1,199, the Blackmagic eGPU Pro features a Radeon RX Vega 56 graphics processor with 8GB MBM2 memory, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, four USB 3 ports, an HDMI 2.0 port, and a DisplayPort 1.4 port. It offers 85W of power delivery.

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  • First 15-inch 2018 MacBook Pro with Pro Vega 16, 20 graphic card benchmarks released, results look impressive

    Following up on last week’s story about Apple releasing 2018 model 15-inch MacBook Pro notebooks with the Radeon Pro Vega 16 and 20 graphics cards, the first bookmarks for these notebooks appear to have been leaked.

    In short, they’re pretty impressive and help show what to expect in terms of performance improvements over 15-inch MacBook Pro models with the standard Radeon Pro 560X graphics card that was previously the highest-end option available.

    The machine, which includes a 2.6GHz Core i7 Intel processor, a Radeon Pro Vega 20 graphics card, 16GB RAM, and a 1TB SSD, earned an OpenCL score of 72799. Additional benchmarks found on Geekbench with a similar machine using an upgraded Core i9 processor demonstrated OpenCL scores of 75817, 76017, and 80002.

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  • Some 2018 11-inch, 12.9-inch iPad Pro units may be susceptible to bending with only a moderate amount of force

    While the new 11-inch and 12.9 inch iPad Pro units are the thinnest Apple tablets yet, measuring in at only 5.9mm in thickness, a number of user complaints and a new bend test video suggest that the tablets might bend under only a moderate amount of force.

    Over on the MacRumors forums, forum member “Bwrin1” posted a photo of a bent 12.9-inch iPad Pro suggesting it had bent from just a weekend trip in a backpack.

    And, on YouTube, YouTuber JerryRigEverything posted the following bend test video of the new iPad Pro, which indicates it has the potential to bend with a limited amount of force.

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  • FCC approves exemption from EU’s European Commission, allows for U.S. satellites to receive European GPS data for the first time

    You can’t say no to additional GPS data.

    As of last week, U.S.-based iOS devices, as well as other devices, will be able to receive European Galileo satellite navigation data for the first time, thanks to an order from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. Smartphone makers have, until now, been legally required to block US devices from receiving the signals from the network.

    The FCC’s change in policy allows for the following exemption from the EU’s European Commission.

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  • Apple currently hiring former Qualcomm engineers to work on wireless modem hardware, focusing on San Diego area

    Per an article published on Thursday by Bloomberg, Apple has begun aggressively hiring engineers in San Diego, the headquarters of Qualcomm. The company is said to be looking for designers in San Diego who will help develop wireless components and processors for its iPhones, a move that would further weaken Qualcomm.

    Apple has posted 10 job listings in San Diego over the past month, the postings searching for engineers to work on Apple’s Neural Engine artificial intelligence processor and wireless modems. This marks the first time Apple has publicly recruited for these types of jobs in San Diego.

    It’s thought that Apple is working on creating its own wireless chips for future iPhone models, which Apple has relied on firms like Qualcomm and Intel in years past.

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